My career goals include making significant contributions to our understanding of axon guidance during neural development, successfully combining research and teaching as a tenured professor at Haverford College and working to increase the numbers of underrepresented minorities in biomedical research. Gaining access to resources, both intellectual and financial, will help achieve these goals. With the NIH Career Development Award for Diversity in Neuroscience, I will expand a collaborative, mentored research plan that reflects the true nature of successful scientific advancement and productivity. During the proposed five years of this award, I will combine the resources that are available at Haverford College and those at the University of Pennsylvania. In particular, the large neurobiology community at the University of Pennsylvania and my interactions with the award mentor, Dr. Jonathan Raper, will prove invaluable to my continued professional development. The proposed career development activities include training in the responsible conduct of research, participation in neuroscience seminars at the Mahoney Neurological Institute at University of Pennsylvania, mentorship meetings and research collaborations, attendance at national and international scientific meetings and participation in advanced technique courses and workshops. The research plan also reflects the value of a mentored career development opportunity and has two main objectives. The first is to characterize the expression patterns of Xenopus sonic hedgehog signaling pathway components in the embryonic brain during visual system development. The second research objective is to determine whether sonic hedgehog signaling is required for proper retinal axon guidance along the optic tract in Xenopus. Collectively, these goals will contribute to a broader understanding of mechanisms of axon guidance during vertebrate development.